“Yes, but think of all we’ve heard from the boys at the ranch about how badly he treated Mr. Witherspoon’s niece, after running away with her, and marrying her. You needn’t tell me, Frank, that such a man is going to care anything for his own child. Like enough he hates Becky, just because she looks like the wife he treated so bad. And I’m ready to believe he’s doing this right now, not to get possession of his own, but to strike a blow at Uncle Jethro, because he hates him so.”
“I’m not saying that it isn’t so, because all things point that way,” Frank continued. “But how are we coming on now, Andy?”
“Drawing up on them by degrees; but I notice that you’ve cut off more’n a little power, Frank, and that we’re not rushing along as fast as we were. Tell me, what have you done that for?”
“Well, you see, now that we’ve sighted our game there’s no need of rushing things at racehorse speed. We’d better go along a little slower, and try to get the lay of things in our minds before we drop down, and surprise Mr. Jose Sandero,” was the way the aeroplane pilot made reply.
There was little of the haphazard about Frank. As a general rule he had a reason for everything he did; and each move was carefully considered beforehand.
Not that he could not do things with lightning-like rapidity when there was actual need for haste, because he had frequently surprised even quick moving Andy on occasions; but the chances were he had thought out all the results of the action before the occasion for it came about.
And the beauty of the relationship between the two Bird boys lay in this fact, that Andy recognized his cousin’s superiority of judgment, and rarely, if ever, questioned his decision.
This did not mean that Andy was merely an “echo,” for that would be a wrong view to take of the case; he had a mind of his own, and often Frank was only too glad to ask his advice when a little in doubt himself. But when two fellows keep company a long time as chums, they gradually come to know each other “from the ground up,” as Andy would express it; and one of them just naturally forges a little to the front as the leader.
In the case of the Bird boys it happened to be Frank, that was all.
As they kept on advancing after the moving figures, Andy would from time to time continue to make some remark, as he looked through the glasses; so that in this way Frank was posted on how things were going.